Pottermore Launches Delightful Interactive Hogwarts Experience

Jill Pantozzi | September 5th, 2017

J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore has just updated with a delightful new interactive Hogwarts experience that should make fans of the old version of the site happy.

Back in 2015 I did a deep dive into my experience with the old Pottermore website, which was initially developed with help from Sony. There was so much to explore but I was lucky I jumped on when I did because it was about to get a big overhaul. The relaunched site looked great but didn’t retain the magic of the original.

But to celebrate the date of Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows epilogue, the a new interactive feature was debuted. The “Hogwarts Experience” is “open to registered users on Pottermore, and is available on most smartphones, tablets and computers.” You can explore the castle, the Forbidden Forest, and the Quidditch pitch with your arrow keys and mouse, uncovering little factoids along the way in the form of glowing orbs. It took a little while to get the hang of it but once I did it was a really enjoyable, calming spin through the story. The colors are nice, as is the music.

The “hotspots” as they call them have cute art and fun word play…

and Doctor Who references…

They also remind us Dumbledore is a bit of a troll…

…while Rowling reminds internet users not to send hate mail.

There are 100 hotspots in all. I missed around four after going through all three sections the first time but luckily found the rest on my second run through without too much frustration.